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Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

VA Announces Expansion of Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today it will expand its pilot for the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER), which enables sharing of Veterans’ health records.

“The expansion of the VLER pilot program will allow more Veterans and facilities to participate in this exciting new technology,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “I invite Veterans to sign up for the program. It will keep health care providers informed, improve continuity and timeliness of care, and eliminate gaps in health care information.”

VLER is a multi-faceted business and technology initiative that includes a portfolio of health, benefits, personnel, and administrative information sharing capabilities.

This pilot expansion is designed to share Veterans’ health information electronically, safely, and privately between VA, Department of Defense (DoD), and selected private health care facilities that are members of the secure Nationwide Health Information Network.

VA is on track to implement health information exchange at 11 VA medical centers and to partner with both DoD and private health care entities by fall 2011. This expansion will enable authorized users to access health information and will provide seamless service to America’s Servicemembers and Veterans.

VA’s goal is to have 50,000 signed authorizations from Veterans who are VA patients to participate in the pilot by the end of the fiscal year, Shinseki noted.

In addition to other ongoing efforts to share benefits and administrative data, the pilot is an initial step toward a larger capability which will become available throughout VA. VA will expand this pilot to provide these services to Servicemembers and Veterans nationwide.

Existing Sites

· San Diego VA Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente San Diego, in operation since winter 2009;